Windows 10: Ex-corporate PC upgraded from Vista to W10 will not activate Windows.

I purchased a PC advertised as Windows 10 from a favourite charity shop. It had been upgraded to Windows 10 from Vista and has a watermark in the bottom right of the screen, saying "Activate Windows, Go to settings to activate windows." I have found that this is an ex-corporate machine and I only have the Vista key on the case of the PC. As a pensioner, I cannot afford to purchase a key from Microsoft, so, is there any way to activate windows or re-install Windows 10 under the free upgrade system previously offered by Microsoft but now unavailable?

:)

 

Vista upgrade to Windows10


If you get a Windows 7 licence you could upgrade Vista to Windows 7. Once activated, this could then be upgraded to Windows 10. The advantage of trying this two step upgrade is that you would be able to retain all installed software (or at least, all that is compatible with W10).

As Ztrucker suggested, make a Macrium image of Vista first. Then you've got a way back if the experiment doesn't work out.

One word of caution. It was common (but bad) practice in XP and probably in Vista to use the built-in Administrator account as the only account on the PC. Upgrading a PC like this to Windows 10 can lead to some serious (uncorrectable) problems should you ever try switching to a Microsoft Account. It should not be possible to link the Built-in Administrator to a Microsoft account under any circumstances, but upgrading a machine that ONLY has the Administrator account is a loophole that make it possible.

It is absolutely essential that if Administrator is the only account on the Vista PC you should first create a second local administrator account, then use that to perform the upgrades to 7 then on to 10. Once you have a second local administrator account it would be best to set a blank password for Administrator and disable that account to match how it would be in a clean install of W10.

How to remove Microsoft Account from the Hidden Administrator - Windows 10 Forums

 

No More Clean-Installs for Vista Upgrades

When users were upgrading to Windows XP, the procedure was that users could simply insert their old Windows 98 or Windows 2000 CD at the appropriate time during a clean install without the need for the old OS to be installed at the time. However, Microsoft has decided to change this for Vista, and now requires a fully installed and activated version of your old OS already on the machine. This comes as an attempt to prevent illegal use of upgrade CDs, but could be inconvenient and time consuming when the time comes to reinstall. The new procedure for a reinstall is as follows:

• Install your old copy of Windows XP
• Activate it either online or over the phone
• Install Vista

Source: DailyTech

 

Clean Install Workaround for Vista

You may remember this news story on techPowerUp! a couple of days ago relating to the lack of clean installs when using the Upgrade Editions of Vista, which required an old OS to be installed. However, Paul Thurrott has managed to find a workaround for this issue, which ironically lets users do a clean install Vista without any previous version of Windows, albeit a little tedious. Here are the steps:

• Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD as normal
• When prompted for a product code, leave this blank
• Select the version of Vista you have purchased and let Vista install
• When you boot to your desktop for the first time, run the Vista setup from Windows
• This time enter your product key
• When asked whether you want to do an Upgrade of Custom install, select custom and choose a clean install
• Windows will now install for a second time and you should be able to activate it

Remember, these steps are only advised for use in order to achieve a clean install of Vista, it is only legal to use the upgrade editions if you have previously purchased the appropriate version of Windows.

Source: DailyTech